1 00:00:00,140 --> 00:00:04,430 JUDY WOODRUFF: Nearly seven years of war in Yemen have produced the world's most dire 2 00:00:04,430 --> 00:00:11,360 humanitarian catastrophe. Millions are starving, not only without food to eat, but little in 3 00:00:11,360 --> 00:00:14,440 the way of medical care for those most in need. 4 00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:19,990 Special correspondent Jane Ferguson has spent years traveling in and out of the country. 5 00:00:19,990 --> 00:00:25,949 This time, she traveled between the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, and the last government stronghold, 6 00:00:25,949 --> 00:00:29,319 Marib. She witnessed the worst conditions yet. 7 00:00:29,319 --> 00:00:33,690 And a warning: Some viewers may find images in this report upsetting. 8 00:00:33,690 --> 00:00:40,480 JANE FERGUSON: Barely conscious, Muraud Okab (ph) silently fights to live beyond his 13 9 00:00:40,480 --> 00:00:46,320 years. He had intestinal surgery in this Yemeni hospital three months ago. His recovery has 10 00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:48,800 been painful and worryingly slow. 11 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:54,059 The surgery left him unable to eat normal food. His father, Muhammad Ali (ph), can rarely 12 00:00:54,059 --> 00:00:59,039 find the specialized nutrition he needs. And even if he could, he can't afford it. 13 00:00:59,039 --> 00:01:08,091 So, he is showing me the bill for the surgery for his son. It's about $3,000. They have 14 00:01:08,091 --> 00:01:20,990 given a reduction down to make it more like $2,500. He doesn't have the money. 15 00:01:20,990 --> 00:01:25,560 Muhammad Ali was a carpenter before the war started six years ago and hasn't had a day 16 00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:26,890 of work since then. 17 00:01:26,890 --> 00:01:32,310 "Every four days, I pay this one," he tells us. "Every day for the treatment, I pay this 18 00:01:32,310 --> 00:01:33,310 one." 19 00:01:33,310 --> 00:01:36,610 This is just bill after bill after bill here. 20 00:01:36,610 --> 00:01:41,509 The "NewsHour" first reported on Muraud's condition back in March. Following up with 21 00:01:41,509 --> 00:01:45,640 his father in person, it is clear he is not improving. 22 00:01:45,640 --> 00:01:51,110 When Muraud got sick he drove to Yemen's capital, Sanaa, with him in his car, before selling 23 00:01:51,110 --> 00:01:57,410 it to try pay for the surgery, the only thing of any monetary value he owned gladly sold 24 00:01:57,410 --> 00:02:02,960 to save the most priceless thing in his life. But it wasn't enough. He's now deep in debt 25 00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:05,799 and with other children waiting for him back home. 26 00:02:05,799 --> 00:02:11,510 Sabeen Hospital hosts Sanaa's largest children's ward. It used to give free treatment to malnourished 27 00:02:11,510 --> 00:02:17,180 and sick children, the final hope for poor families. But in the last six months, funding 28 00:02:17,180 --> 00:02:21,959 from aid agencies like UNICEF has slowed to a trickle, and the hospital simply cannot 29 00:02:21,959 --> 00:02:24,710 afford to operate for free anymore. 30 00:02:24,710 --> 00:02:29,370 Nishwa Mahfout is a final year medical student, working here without salary and fighting to 31 00:02:29,370 --> 00:02:35,409 save a generation of babies. She watches parents walk out of here with sick and dying children 32 00:02:35,409 --> 00:02:36,569 every day. 33 00:02:36,569 --> 00:02:41,120 When you see a child leave this ward, how much faith do you have that they are going 34 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:42,500 to survive long term? 35 00:02:42,500 --> 00:02:44,310 NISHWA MAHFOUT, Medical Student: A lot of people, when they go, when they -- when we 36 00:02:44,310 --> 00:02:51,550 treat them, they don't have the money enough, or it's very expensive for them. They go and 37 00:02:51,550 --> 00:02:56,452 they never return. And they go to die in their homes, because they don't have expense of 38 00:02:56,452 --> 00:02:59,489 the drugs or the hospital. 39 00:02:59,489 --> 00:03:05,060 JANE FERGUSON: Do you see that? People run out of money here and they have to leave? 40 00:03:05,060 --> 00:03:07,470 NISHWA MAHFOUT: A lot, a lot. They are almost 90 percent. 41 00:03:07,470 --> 00:03:08,480 JANE FERGUSON: Ninety percent? 42 00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:14,480 NISHWA MAHFOUT: They don't have -- yes, a lot of people, because it's a local hospital. 43 00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:22,930 And the only people who get here is the poor, not only the poor, the poorest people get 44 00:03:22,930 --> 00:03:25,080 here, and they don't have the resources. 45 00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:31,030 The only that they have -- even they don't have enough food for that day. And we ask 46 00:03:31,030 --> 00:03:35,370 them to buy drugs, costing them a month, a month. 47 00:03:35,370 --> 00:03:37,690 JANE FERGUSON: It costs them a monthly income? 48 00:03:37,690 --> 00:03:38,690 NISHWA MAHFOUT: Yes, exactly. 49 00:03:38,690 --> 00:03:44,659 JANE FERGUSON: And so when they leave, do you ask them to stay? Like, do you -- how 50 00:03:44,659 --> 00:03:48,250 do you react to people leaving when the baby is not well yet? 51 00:03:48,250 --> 00:03:55,069 NISHWA MAHFOUT: I become very sad and asking for my -- by myself, asking, can I help them? 52 00:03:55,069 --> 00:03:59,520 I say, how many can I help? If I help one, I can't help all of them.' 53 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:04,439 JANE FERGUSON: As Yemen's brutal war and the humanitarian catastrophe it wrought enters 54 00:04:04,439 --> 00:04:10,409 its seventh year, international aid is not close to keeping up with the vast needs here. 55 00:04:10,409 --> 00:04:15,849 The global COVID crisis and economic austerity from donor countries has reduced pledges. 56 00:04:15,849 --> 00:04:22,130 Yet nowhere on Earth are so many people going hungry. Tens of thousands are already living 57 00:04:22,130 --> 00:04:26,920 with famine, the highest level of hunger in the United Nations' official scale. 58 00:04:26,920 --> 00:04:32,340 Never before in history have so many been on the level just below, with the aid agencies 59 00:04:32,340 --> 00:04:36,540 literally keeping five million of Yemen's population of 30 million alive. 60 00:04:36,540 --> 00:04:41,480 LAURENT BUKERA, World Food Program: In Yemen, actually, two thirds -- I repeat -- two thirds 61 00:04:41,480 --> 00:04:43,360 of the population is food-insecure somehow. 62 00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:48,300 JANE FERGUSON: Laurent Bukera is Yemen country director for the U.N.'s World Food Program. 63 00:04:48,300 --> 00:04:54,750 LAURENT BUKERA: We have almost half of the country, which is one step away from the highest 64 00:04:54,750 --> 00:04:59,180 possible classification of hunger. And I think that's unprecedented. 65 00:04:59,180 --> 00:05:08,340 And, for us, what is the -- what is -- really frighten us is, as you know in other contexts, 66 00:05:08,340 --> 00:05:14,130 if one waits for famine to be declared, it's actually too late. And doing that with half 67 00:05:14,130 --> 00:05:22,510 of the population close, as close as can be to the precipice is something we cannot do. 68 00:05:22,510 --> 00:05:27,080 JANE FERGUSON: In Northern Yemen, Houthi rebels are fighting the internationally recognized 69 00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:32,010 Yemeni government, which is supported by Saudi airpower. 70 00:05:32,010 --> 00:05:37,600 The Houthis are allied with and supported by Iran, Saudi Arabia's regional rival. 71 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:42,960 The Saudis impose a partial blockade around rebel-held areas to try to deny the Houthis 72 00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:48,060 vital income and weapons, but that has brought the economy to its knees and starved civilians 73 00:05:48,060 --> 00:05:54,680 as well. Most people in Yemen live in rebel-held territory, where millions have been left destitute 74 00:05:54,680 --> 00:05:56,950 and unable to afford food. 75 00:05:56,950 --> 00:06:02,280 The Houthis also have attempted to tax, regulate and control the aid coming in, worsening the 76 00:06:02,280 --> 00:06:03,940 situation throughout 2020. 77 00:06:03,940 --> 00:06:10,860 LAURENT BUKERA: So, for us, for the World Food Program, from April 2020, we had to reduce 78 00:06:10,860 --> 00:06:17,930 our intervention. And in the north, we are, unfortunately, assisting on every other month. 79 00:06:17,930 --> 00:06:21,940 So, basically, it's not every month that we provide the assistance. We provide it every 80 00:06:21,940 --> 00:06:23,020 alternate month. 81 00:06:23,020 --> 00:06:27,210 JANE FERGUSON: Relations between the World Food Program and the Houthis have improved 82 00:06:27,210 --> 00:06:32,820 since. But other aid agencies say their work is hampered by constant demands from the rebels 83 00:06:32,820 --> 00:06:35,770 for security permits and endless paperwork. 84 00:06:35,770 --> 00:06:40,530 The Houthi authorities in Sanaa also restricted our movements, and we were carefully monitored 85 00:06:40,530 --> 00:06:42,740 as we worked. 86 00:06:42,740 --> 00:06:48,260 Civilians on both sides of this war bear the cost of it. Across the front lines, in Marib 87 00:06:48,260 --> 00:06:53,690 province, tens of thousands of people who fled Houthi advances now live in camps on 88 00:06:53,690 --> 00:06:58,890 the government side. This mobile clinic is funded by the U.N. and serves pregnant and 89 00:06:58,890 --> 00:06:59,950 breast-feeding women. 90 00:06:59,950 --> 00:07:05,380 On a sparse diet, few manage to breast feed at all, leaving babies stunted, unable to 91 00:07:05,380 --> 00:07:11,650 walk, and stalked by death. Safia is 20 years old and couldn't breast-feed her youngest 92 00:07:11,650 --> 00:07:12,650 baby. 93 00:07:12,650 --> 00:07:15,690 SAFIA AHMED, Yemen (through translator): I got pregnant with this boy when this one was 94 00:07:15,690 --> 00:07:21,250 6 months old. This boy is 1 year and 8 months old now, and he cannot walk or stand. 95 00:07:21,250 --> 00:07:30,050 JANE FERGUSON: The food offered is emergency soy meal and sugar for the women. 96 00:07:30,050 --> 00:07:31,341 They take it for six months, the first six months of breast-feeding the baby. 97 00:07:31,341 --> 00:07:35,880 The cutbacks in WFP handouts are biting. Each family gets flour, cooking oil, sugar and 98 00:07:35,880 --> 00:07:41,690 salt. If they have nothing else, they will have to live on tea and bread. Life is made 99 00:07:41,690 --> 00:07:45,370 up of long days spent waiting to go home. 100 00:07:45,370 --> 00:07:50,220 Saleh Mohammed doesn't have much faith in waiting any more. He built this small cinder 101 00:07:50,220 --> 00:07:55,960 block house in place of a tent a month ago. He's only three miles away from his home village, 102 00:07:55,960 --> 00:08:02,280 but with fighting raging there, it may as well be 1,000 miles. He, like many others 103 00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:07,820 here, is watching what the United States can and will do in the recent push for peace here. 104 00:08:07,820 --> 00:08:12,500 SALEH MOHAMMED, Yemen (through translator): We think the new president, Joe Biden, is 105 00:08:12,500 --> 00:08:16,400 much better than the last one towards Yemen. He wants to stop the war in Yemen, unlike 106 00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:17,400 the last one. 107 00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:21,680 We hope to be able to go back home, but thousands of families have left their houses, and they 108 00:08:21,680 --> 00:08:23,860 were destroyed because of war. 109 00:08:23,860 --> 00:08:29,520 JANE FERGUSON: Even the idea of rebuilding seems like a faraway dream in this place. 110 00:08:29,520 --> 00:08:35,250 At dusk, the sun sets over the hills and is replaced by a full moon. The children play 111 00:08:35,250 --> 00:08:40,200 under its light, as their parents rest in their tents, readying themselves for another 112 00:08:40,200 --> 00:08:45,910 day to come, one more day of surviving this war. 113 00:08:45,910 --> 00:08:50,220 For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jane Ferguson in Sanaa, Yemen.